Placer Nature Center's Community Partners

Our Community Partners

Placer Nature Center receives support from many wonderful organizations throughout Placer County who share a passion for education and the environment.
A healthy world means a world to us!

Program Specific Grants & Partners

First 5 Placer

Placer Nature Center is a partner with First 5 Placer County's Children and Families Commission to nurture children's natural curiosity for the outdoors. Through their support, Placer Nature Center presents a unique and dynamic series of hands-on learning programs for children 0-5 years old. Programs include:

"Our Day Outside"
Families with young children (up to 5 years old) explore and play together. Through nature investigations with hand lenses, singing, make-believe, puppetry and more children interact together and with their families, learning about the world around them while having lots of fun!

This free class helps build a foundation of necessary skills needed for excelling in school:

Close Observation Skills
Creating New Ideas
Develop Critical-Thinking

Parents and Caregivers learn to encourage understanding and awareness of the natural environment to help cultivate scientific literacy and stimulate stewardship attitudes towards Earth. But above all families have fun learning together!
*Classes are also offered in Spanish.

The Saturday classes run from 9:30am-11:30am.
The following days and themes are held at Placer Nature Center:

Feb. 20, 2010 - Wigglers
Mar. 20, 2010 - Feathered Friends
Apr. 17, 2010 - Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!

Off-site classes and locations (each site, offers a unique nature experience).

"Discovering Nature with Young Children"
Discover Nature with Young Children 12 Hours of Professional Growth free for Placer County teachers, caregivers and other professionals working with children 0-5 years of age. The six two-hour sessions present and demonstrate “nature play.” Using tools and inspirational ideas, educators learn to facilitate nature study while weaving themes into other indoor and outdoor activities. Teachers and caregivers have the choice of attending all six sessions or just their favorite topics.

The 2009-2010 school year classes are held on Thursdays from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM. Dates and themes:

Apr. 1, 2010 - Mini Environments:Terrariums

For more information and location of class, please visit the Just for Teachers page.

"Foothill Discovery"
Placer Nature Center takes the learning program to Placer County Early Headstart and Headstart preschools. Foothill Discovery helps children see nature in their own schoolyard. Children learn close observation skills, how to create and explore new ideas and develop critical-thinking.

Placer County water Agency

Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) has partnered with the Placer Nature Center to deliver water education field trips to Placer County schools.

Image: Children learning about water usage.

Above: From abstract to concrete - students learn complex concepts of shared water usage through intuitive, hands-on activities.

This special funding allows schools to incorporate important watershed learning into the curriculum while meeting the California Content Standards. Students learn about their role in the watershed as well as the use and conservation of natural resources. These water education programs are presented in grade-specific, hands-on activities that make complex water issues easy to understand from kindergarten to eighth grade. Learn more about the Watershed Learning Programs.

PCWA’s general governance and integrated resource management of its Agency Wide activities encompass Placer County’s entire 1,500-square-mile boundary to provide sustainable, reliable and affordable drinking and irrigation water for Placer County’s retail and resale customers within the six cities and the unincorporated areas of Placer County. The Agency’s Power System, which includes five hydroelectric power plants and two large reservoirs, provides hydroelectric energy sufficient to provide electricity to a quarter of a million retail electricity customers.

PCWA’s service area ranges from the rim of the Sacramento Valley on the west to the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe on the east. The Agency is actively involved in issues affecting the Truckee, American, and Yuba/Bear River systems, along with the State’s Central Valley Water Project and the Bay/Delta system.

PCWA is headquartered in Auburn, the county seat of Placer County, in California's beautiful Gold Country.

For the latest information on PCWA activities and or for information on the Agency’s successful Water Use Efficiency Program, click on this link: www.pcwa.net

Program Specific Partners:

2009-2010 4th Friday Lecture Series

From California Salmon to the Mesopotamian Marshes, the 4th Friday Lecture Series brings timely science and natural history topics to the Sierra Foothills. Our sponsors make it possible!


	Marion Friedman	49er Printing & Copy Center (530) 885-2481 11806 Kemper Rd Auburn, CA 95603
	Unity of Auburn (530) 888-6489 1212 High Street Auburn, CA 95603

Nature Bowl

The Placer County Resource Conservation District is an independent, self governing body organized in 1946 and dedicated to the conservation of natural resources. The RCD develops and enables programs in partnership with others that assist private landowners and public agencies to accomplish the goal of conserving natural resources.www.PlacerCountyRCD.org

Placer Tree Partners

The Placer Tree Partners (PTP) were recently formed as a subcommittee of the Auburn Ravine/Coon Creek Watershed group. PTP's mission is “to create, nurture, and sustain a community where a variety of healthy trees are abundant in all areas, providing beauty, serenity, cooling shade, and good health to residents and visitors for generations to come.” Together, the partners are providing many activities and educational resources to increase public awareness and appreciation of trees in an urban forest setting. www.PlacerTree.org

2009 Summer Camp Partners

	Auburn Garden Club www.auburngardenclub.org
	Auburn Host Lions Club www.auburnhostlions.org
	R.E.I. www.REI.com
	Sierra Foothill Audubon Society www.sierrafoothillsaudubon.com

Friends & Family Day

Seal of Placer County Placer County Department of Public Works,
Stormwater Quality Division
Partnered to bring community members the "My Home, My Habits, My Watershed" day, November 14, 2009. Did you know that as a home or business owner you play an important role in keeping our waterways clean and pollution free? It’s true! What you do around your home or business can end up in our waterways.
Find out how you can help keep our water clean by visiting the Stormwater Quality web site!

What many people may not realize is that roadside ditches, neighborhood curb/gutter systems and parking lot drainage inlets generally carry runoff directly streams, creeks and lakes with absolutely NO TREATMENT. So what ever pollutants that go into the storm drain system, go into our water.

If you see a problem, something getting into our water ways that shouldn't be, you can stop it by calling Placer County's Stormwater Quality Division - they will help educate and inform the property owners or help remedy the problem. They can be reached by calling 530-745-7500 and ask for Stormwater Quality Information, or contact them online through their "Contact Us" page.

To report illegal dumping or a spill outside of normal business hours, please call the County Hotline Number, in the Auburn area (530) 889-4000 or outside the Auburn area at (800)488-4308.

Administration Grants & Supporters

The following community partners help with the day-to-day administration of Placer Nature Center.

Dwyer and Company, Certified Public Accountant

Darrell J. Dwyer, MBA CPA, principal of Dwyer and Company in Auburn and Rocklin, completes Placer Nature Center's tax returns for the IRS, Secretary of State and Franchise Tax Board each year and addresses other tax related issues for the Center as a volunteer. Darrell helps ensure the satisfactory compliance with the legal and accounting requirements of our 501.c.3 organization. To read more about Darrel’s firm please visit www.dwyer-cpa.com or call him at (916) 624-7995
Be sure to check out his Tax Tip of the Week!

Google Grants

Placer Nature Center is a recipient of a Google Grant award.

The Google Grants program supports organizations sharing Google's philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.

Designed for 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program harnessing the power of Google AdWords advertising product. Google Grants has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education.

Salesforce

Putting Salesforce in the hands of qualified nonprofits and educators allows social change organizations to focus more time on their missions and less time dealing with technology infrastructure.

By donating 10 licenses of Salesforce Nonprofit Edition and a further 80% discount on additional licenses, salesforce.com is revolutionizing the ability of social change organizations to achieve their mission.

More than 5,500 worldwide social change organizations use Salesforce for a wide range of uses including:

Constituent relationship management
Fund-raising efforts
Volunteer opportunities
Program delivery
Recruiting

Don't Miss:

Quick Links